Apparatus for packing shrub roots



@ec. 25, 1962 E. c. KILLMER APPARATUS FOR PACKING SHRUB ROOTS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 1, 1960 INVENTOR.

1 121. Cf KLLMER .BYM fiz- I I PM A 7'7'0E/VE Y5 APPARATUS FOR PACKING SHRUB ROOTS Filed Nov. 1, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 0 h 7 S $3 I P r $5 3* w u! Q 9 0 wa h I QIW INVENTOR. Qt EARL CKzzzMER "Mu 3; nrroe/vlfYs United States Patent 3,069,825 APPARATUS FOR PACKING SHRUB ROOTS Earl C. Kilhner, 1700 Larpenteur Ave. W., St. Paul, Minn. Filed Nov. 1, 1960, Ser. No. 66,666 2 Claims. (Cl. 53-215) This invention relates to apparatus for, and method of packing shrub roots at a high rate of speed and with a minimum of material and time consumed.

An object of the invention is to provide a new and improved apparatus of simple and inexpensive construction and operation for packing shrub roots and packing material into compact packages.

Another object of my invention is the provision of a novel shrub 'root packing machine which goes completely through a packing cycle once it is set into operation.

Another object of the invention is the provision of an improved method of packing shrub roots through the use of a single piece of packing paper.

These and other objects and advantages of my invention will more fully appear from the following description made in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference characters refer to the same or similar parts throughout the several views and in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the machine;

FIG. 2 is a detail elevation view of a portion of the machine in a shifted position with respect to FIG. 1 and with the background deleted for clarity of detail;

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal section view through the machine with portions thereof deleted for clarity of detail;

FIG. 4 is a detail section view taken approximately at 44 in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a sheet of wrapping paper or other material showing the cut and fold lines thereof; and

FIG. 6 is a view of the Wrapping paper shown in FIG. 5 and showing the additional steps of producing the wrapped package of shrub roots.

The machine is indicated in general by numeral 10 and includes a frame structure 11 which rigidly mounts a pair of track elements or plates 12 and 13 along which the carriage 14- moves on upper rollers 15, lower rollers 16 and edge rollers 17. The track elements extend in a fore-andaft direction of the frame structure 11 so as to permit fore-and-aft movement of the carriage 14. The carriage 14 has a bearing 18 mounted thereon which carries a shaft 19 on which is mounted a roller 20 which is positioned above the table 21 extending along one side of the path of movement of the carriage 14 and having a downwardly inclined forward end portion 22 oriented in converging relation with the path of movement of the roller 20. A wide belt 23 overlies the table 21 and roller 20 and has its ends 23a and 23b suitably affixed to the frame structure as by clamping and the belt 23 has a substantial amount of slack therein so as to form a loop 24 beneath and behind the roller 20 for receiving the shrub roots and packing material therein and for rolling these roots and material into a tightly compressed cylinder within a sheet of paper P which is laid in the loop 24, substantially in the position shown in FIG. 1. The rear end portion 22a of the table is hinged by means of a hinge structure 25 and is supported on a coil spring 26 from a bracket 27 on the frame structure 1 1 so as to yieldably mount the rear end portion 22a of the table and permit downward movement of this portion of the table as the roller 20 moves rearwardly along the table. A shrub root-receiving and holding plate 28 is affixed on the frame structure 11 at the rear end of table 21 for receiving the packed shrub roots when they are ejected from the belt.

Means are provided for driving the carriage forwardly 'ice and rearwardly along the frame structure, and in the form shown, a motor 29 is mounted. on the frame structure and mounted by a belt 30 to a speed-reducing and rotation-changing mechanism 31 which is capable of changing the direction of rotation at its output and is also capable of stopping the rotation at its output by operation of the control arm 32. The output of the mechanism 31 is applied to a roller chain 33 which, depending on the position of control arm 32, will be driven in the direction of arrow A or in the direction of arrow B so a to drive the chain sprocket 34 in one direction or the other. The chain sprocket 34 is affixed on a shaft 35 to which is also keyed a second chain sprocket 36 around which is trained the drive chain 37. The end portions 37:: of the drive chain are afiixed to the carriage 14 and the chain is also trained around another chain sprocket 38 at the rear end of the frame structure 11. The sprocket 38 is mounted on a shaft 39 which is carried in suitable bearings 40 on the frame structure. The control arm 32 is operated by a handle 41 which is pivoted to the frame structure by a bolt 42 and has its lower end swingably connected by a bolt 43 and bracket 44 to a control rod 45, the opposite end of which is connected by a bracket 46 to the control arm 32. The control arm 32 is also connected to a slide bar 47 which is secured by means of cross elements 48 to a slidable guide bar 49 which extends through suitably provided bearing apertures in cross members 50 extending between the opposite side portions of frame structure 11 beneath the path of movement of the carriage 14. The slide bar 47 has a pair of abutments 51 and 52 on opposite ends thereof and disposed in the path of movement of the carriage 14 so as to individually engage the opposite ends of the carriage when the carriage is shifted to one end of the frame structure or the other.

When the root of a shrub S and a quantity of packing material PM is to be ti htly packed into a compact cylinder in the machine, a piece P of the packing paper which may be of a multi-lamina structure, is first cut along the line C as seen in FIG. 5 inwardly from the side portion 60 and parallel to the side portion 6 1 of the piece of paper. The paper is then folded upwardly along the fold line 62 and then inwardly along the line 63 so that the end flap 64 will lie in confronting relation with the side portion 60 when that side portion is folded upwardly along the fold line 65, as will be clearly seen in FIG. 6.

The paper P when folded into this condition is applied into the loop 24 of the machine, as shown in FIG. 1 after the machine is adjusted so that the roller 20 is disposed slightly toward the handle from that position actually seen in FIG. 1 so that the end flap 64 and the abutting portion of the side 69 of the paper engages the panel 11a immediately adjacent the forward end of the table. The packing material M and shrub root S is laid in the paper as seen in FIG. 6, and then the handle 41 is moved to the dotted position shown in FIG. 3 so as to move the control arm 32 to its dotted line position, whereupon the power is applied to the chain 33 and to the carriage 14 so as to move the carriage in the direction of arrow C forwardly along the frame structure. It will be noted that as the handle 41 is moved, the slide rod 67 is also moved in its dotted line position shown in FIG. 3', whereupon as the carriage 14 progresses toward the rear portion of the machine, the carriage 14 will engage the abutment 51 so as to again move the slide bar 47 rearwardly and thereby center the control arm in the full line position shown and remove the power which has been previously applied to the chain 33 and carriage 44and thereby stopping the carriage.

The handle 41 is then swung forwardly of the full line position shown to reverse the carriage and bring it back to the full line position of the carriage which is shown.

Again, the carriage will hit the abutment 52 and return the control arm 32 to centered condition so as to stop the source of rotary power which is applied to chain 33.

It will be understood that when a sheet of wrapping paper need merely be laid upon the belt 23, during the root-wrapping operation without folding up the edges as described in connection with FIGS. 5 and 6, and in this situation, the shrub root and packing material which is wrapped in the piece of paper will be slipped into a conventional type of paper bag which is tied around the stem of the shrub so as to protect the roots and packing material from handling and from weather conditions.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made in the form, detail, arrangement and proportion of the parts without departing from the scope of my invention which consists of the matter described herein and set forth in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A shrub root packing machine, comprising an elongate frame structure having front and rear ends, a carriage, means guiding the carriage for sliding movement in a fore-and-aft direction on the structure, a table on the structure at one side of the carriage, a roller above the table, means mounting one end of the roller on the carriage and moving the roller with the carriage along the table, the path of movement of the roller and the table converging in a rearward direction to maintain the roller and table in closely spaced relation at the rear end of the table and to maintain the table and roller in Widely spaced relation at the front of the table, a belt overlying the table and roller and having front and rear ends afiixed to the table, said belt having a rearwardly opening loop beneath and behind the roller to receive and carry the shrub roots and packing material, a pair of chain sprockets respectively journalled on the structure adjacent the front and rear ends thereof, a drive chain trained over said sprockets and secured to said carriage for moving the carriage and roller, a source of reversible rotary power having a multi-position control operable at its several positions to stop and change the direction of rotation of said power source, an elongate slide bar on the structure and extending along the path of movement of the carriage and having abutments at the front and rear end thereof in the path of movement of the carriage for engagement therewith, and means connecting said bar to said control to operate the control and cause the carriage to stop when the carriage engages said abutments.

2. A shrub root packing machine, comprising an elongate frame structure having front and rear ends, a carriage, means guiding the carriage for sliding movement in a fore-and-aft movement on the structure, a table on the structure at one side of the carriage, a roller above the table, means mounting one end of the roller on the carriage and moving the roller with the carriage along the table, the table and the path of motion cf the roller converging in a rearward direction to position the rolfer and table in closely spaced relation at the rear of the table and to position the roller and table in widely spaced relation at the front of the table, a belt overlying the table and roller and having front and rear ends affixed to the table, said belt having a rearwardly opening loop beneath and behind the roller to receive and carry the shrub roots and packing material, means moving the carriage along the frame structure and including a source of reversibie rotary power having a control arm movable in the direction of carriage travel to a plurality of positions for causing said rotary power souce to stop and to change direction of rotation at several positions, a swinging handie mounted on the frame stucture and having a linkage connected with said control arm, a slide bar on the structure and connected with said handle and arm to be moved to multi-positions, said slide bar being moved rearwardly with respect to the structure when the handle and control arm are shifted to produce rearward movement of the carriage along the structure, and said slide bar having abutments at its opposite ends engageable with said carriage to be moved thereby after the carriage approaches the end of the slide bar, whereby to shift the control arm to stop the source of rotary power.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,603,046 Paulsen July 15, 1952 2,750,723 Fisher June 19, 1956 2,779,144 Nail Jan. 29, 1957 2,816,409 Richardson Dec. 17, 1957 

